The unemployment rate is the most important indicator for people who are believers in the Phillips Curve. Phillips Curvers believe that there is a trade-off between unemployment and inflation. The less slack in the labor markets (lower unemployment rate) the more inflation there will be as labor can bargain for higher wages and this,

I was the honored recipient of a dinner that took place for my 30th anniversary at CWS last week. The dinner was organized by my wife with some help from CWS. I usually don’t read a prepared speech when I have something to say in public but in this case,

As investors (and human beings) it’s almost always best to keep our cool and not let others or ourselves get the best of us. When we lose our center and become consumed by emotion set off by powerful triggers, mistakes happen and we often come to regret our actions and the consequences they unleash.

I was flipping through the television channels last week and I came across Ken Burns’s last episode of his Civil War documentary. It is such a highly regarded series and one in which I hope to see from beginning to end some day. I have always been fascinated by the Civil War and,

Charlie Munger is a big proponent of solving problems and optimizing through inversion. For example, if you want to live a happy, productive, and successful life it is probably more valuable to study those people who you think have been unhappy, unproductive, and unsuccessful.

It is just as important to know what not to do and avoid those actions and decisions as it is to know what to do.

“A lot of companies have chosen to downsize, and maybe that was the right thing for them. We chose a different path. Our belief was that if we kept putting great products in front of customers, they would continue to open their wallets.”

Ben Carlson wrote an excellent piece about how knowledge is not enough in life. If one desires to effect change then knowledge without action is just an interesting academic exercise. It can actually end up being demoralizing as nothing is more frustrating than knowing what to do but lacking the desire to carry out the action and the discipline to stick with it.

With last week being dedicated to a much-enjoyed vacation, I thought I would let pictures do more of the talking this week.

Not surprisingly, the Fed increased its benchmark rate by 0.25%. The market fully priced this in. What is more surprising is the Fed telegraphing two more hikes in 2017 and commencing a slow reduction in its holdings of Treasuries and mortgage-backed securities beginning at the end of the year.

Steve Schwarzman is the co-founder and Chairman and CEO of Blackstone, which is the largest alternative asset management firm in the world. Schwarzman has built a financial colossus and extraordinarily successful asset management firm that is by far the global leader in alternative investments.